You Don’t Hate Anything

February 10, 2015Leave a comment

When I was in an eight grade art class, I remember a conversation I had with some of my friends. Our teacher was absent at the time, and many of my friends were discussing the various faults of the missing teacher. I countered and said I didn’t mind her. My friend answered, in almost a derogatory way, “Well you don’t hate anything.” I didn’t quite know what to think then. The comment has stuck with me for twelve years and I’ve thought about it during that time. I now consider it one of the best compliments I have ever received.

Lately it is a philosophy I am striving to live by. During the past year, I have become engaged in the world of permaculture and self-sufficiency. I love the goals and ethics of the movements, but I never agree with everything that is said and written. I simply ignore the negative motions against practices, companies and people. There is a lot of bashing in the world from people convinced that other corporations and practices are evil and worth fighting against. I believe that there is only one thing worth fighting against, one main evil and that is the devil, Satan or whatever word you choose to use. There is real evil out there: people knowingly hurting others and committing crimes. That is worth fighting against.

But there is a lot of fighting against things that are not purely evil like oil corporations, pesticide companies, and non-organic practices. I’m not lending my voice. I’m not going to start hating people who are trying to live the best they can even if it doesn’t match my ideals. I not going to hate practices and companies that aren’t perfect and might be flawed but still aren’t blatantly bad.

Instead I choose to focus on positive solutions, on better ways to do things, of striving to just get a little better. Instead of despising pesticides, I find ways to garden where I don’t feel like I need them. Instead of trying to close down businesses, I try to support good companies and causes I care about. I view things on a spectrum: there are certainly better ways of doing things, but just because something isn’t the best doesn’t make it bad.

Hating and fighting against things that aren’t evil but simply not the best isn’t worth any effort. Instead I choose to live the best I can at this moment and to support the best I can find.

Antelope Island

February 10, 20151 Comment

During the one week it was cold this year, I was dreaming about going to the beach. It sounded warm and heavenly. On Saturday we went to the beach. It was beautiful like I dreamed about. But strangely, we didn’t leave Utah to find it. We drove down to Antelope Island, had a small picnic played at the beach, and went on a small hike. Although I think I would prefer snow, the warmth is awesome too.

Trains

February 5, 2015Leave a comment

We had a recent foray to the Union Station museum down in Ogden. It was fun, and I was actually suprised to see that they had a lot of new exhibits since last time we went about a year ago.

If you are in the area, they do a reciprocal program with the Ogden Nature Center and Dinosaur Park. If you buy a membership to one, you get weekday admission to the others. They are pretty inexpensive memberships as well.

Growing Up

February 3, 20151 Comment

Baby H is getting much bigger and cutter. He recently started smiling:

We blessed him in Church last Sunday. The only picture I captured is him snuggling with his grandma:

$5 No-Sew Curtain Valance

January 20, 20151 Comment

We moved some more furniture around, and after doing that the lack of curtains in the front living room started to bother me. I decided it was finally time to get some type of curtains up. It’s only been on my list since we moved in which is over a year ago. I’ve been content with just the blinds. For the large picture window, I decided I would continue to be content with the blinds. The front window could use at least a valance.

I perused Pinterest, Google and Amazon looking for ideas. I went to the store and picked up a length of black burlap with only a slight idea of what I was going to do, and came home and looked online for more ideas. Finally, I did something very similar to this.

I like the way it turned out. It took me about an hour of cutting and tying. I didn’t have to break out the sewing machine which I was grateful for. I used two yards of the black burlap and fabric scraps I had on hand for a grand total cost of $5.

Here’s the living room now and this is a link to the living room before.

Reading

January 16, 2015Leave a comment

I don’t let my children get on the computer that much. We’ll do a show in the afternoon and maybe a few games, but that’s it. We have “media free mornings” and the kids aren’t allowed to get on the computer to do anything, including listening to music.

So instead they do this:

Both of the love books. PB is an excellent reader. He’s not even in kindergarten yet and already he can read almost all the books we bring home from the library. Usually he reads most books before I have the opportunity to read them together. I was trying to read him a book today, but he wasn’t listening to me at all, just reading in by himself.

No Other Gods

January 14, 20151 Comment

I had a horrible day at one point, and did something I never wanted to do again. I prayed that the lord would help me with my weakness so i would never be in the same situation again. He patiently showed me several ways that i needed to change.

I realized that my routine was becoming a God. I like to get a lot done during the day. A ridged schedule is impossible with young children, but I do have a routine I follow religiously. The first of the ten commandments is “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” I believe that this commandment teaches that we need to turn to God first as our authority, our support and follow His commandments before anything else.

I turned to my routine before I was turning to God. Instead of seeking God and what He would have me do, I would look at my list and what I had planned. If things went wrong, I got angry instead of being humble. At the end of the day, instead of evaluating my life with the commandments and expectations God has given us, I would judge how I did based on how well everything went and how much I got done.

So I am trying to change. Instead of seeking the next thing in my routine, I desire to pray to God and ask if there is anything that He needs me to do. At the end of the day, I need to not worry if I got the planned chores done, but if I was gentle and kind with my children, if i followed the exhortations in the scriptures.

There are many things which can come before God, and I don’t want any of them to do so any more. Sometimes it is my routines, my to-do list. Other times it is the distraction of media or a bad attitude. There is nothing more important to me than my faith and God, but I don’t always act that way.

What sometimes comes before God in your life and how can you change that?

Color Snow

January 14, 2015Leave a comment

I was happy it snowed. Mostly so we could do this:

I love coloring snow. We used condiment and squirt bottles in a variety of colors, and now my front yard looks awesome.

Lighting

January 8, 2015Leave a comment

Our main area lacks overhead lighting. I have never wanted to put floor lamps in there because in my experience, floor lamps and young children don’t combine well. When we moved in, I bought a couple of wall lamps from IKEA. Because they were wall mounted, they didn’t take up any extra space, and the kids couldn’t knock them over. My mom also lent me a lamp that had been sitting in her storage for 25 years: an old hanging globe lamp.

Here’s aside story with that lamp. Last year I was setting up the Christmas tree and the stupid lamp was in the way. I took a step back to analyze the situation and figured out that the lamp would work perfectly as the topper to the tree.

We’ve had the three lamps since we moved in a year ago and recently I decided they weren’t good enough. I wanted more light, and something I could turn on as soon as I walked into the room. (All of the lamps were on the opposite wall, necessasitating crossing the room in the dark to turn them on.) My husband and I started talking about what we could do. Putting in an overhead was a bit of a hassle since the attic bedroom is finished. I thought about putting up a fixture on the wall that was devoid of lights, and went online looking at options, but couldn’t really find anything. I was still opposed to floor lamps, but then realized that we could put a lamp on the shelf. So then we looked online for lamps that would work. We had been talking and looking at different options for a long time, when my husband asked why we didn’t just use the extra lamp downstairs. I had forgotten we had it. It worked great for what we needed it for.

It took five minutes to solve a problem I puzzled over for an hour. The first place I should have looked for a solution was in my own house, not just adding on more junk. The best solutions are inexpensive, easy and quick, and they are often found by just evaluating what we have, not wanting more.

Lots of Pictures

January 8, 20151 Comment

We are all loving this little guy a lot. C will fight his brother to have exclusive rights to play with him. He asks where he is if he can’t find him, and I’ve convinced him to do things by saying that the baby will like it.

hello

This is a self-portrait by PB. He likes taking funny pictures. Sometimes he takes a normal picture too, like the one of C.

We have been getting back into routine a bit, and I’ve been getting bored just staying home. So we’ve been out doing fun things, including a trip down to the Aerospace Museum that PB was begging for, and sledding while there was still snow on the ground.